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It’s getting on towards morning, so you invite Aradia to spend the day at your hive. You try to ask casually, with the blank face you are cultivating to intimidate suspects and totally dominate at poker, but your bloodpusher picks up the pace significantly when she says yes. You both set off in the slowly rising light, talking about nothing.
“Thanks for letting me stay at yours. I was afraid I’d run out of energy to get back home.” Aradia’s feet crunch in the pink carpet of leaves on the forest floor. Everything smells sugar-pink and earth-brown. Your muscles ache with the good kind of exhaustion that comes after a workout.
“FLARPing wears even the most tireless and brave of heroines,” you explain.
“If they’re tireless, how can they get tired?” asks Aradia, grinning. You sigh.
“Imagine I am rolling my eyes at you.” You start to smell faint wisps of color high above in the rosy canopy of the forest, and know you are nearly home.
“What’s this?” You turn, and smell that Aradia is holding out a red scalemate towards you. It must’ve fallen from its noose- you make a mental note to work on your knots.
“Oh, this is Investigator Cranberrybottom. He was on trial for covering up his matesprit’s crimes against the Empire. But luckily Legislacerator Terezi Pyrope was on the case.” Aradia smiles, and you can smell the white of her fangs from several feet away. You arrive at the foot of you tree, and Aradia tilts her head back to look up.
“Wow, highblood hives are huge!” she exclaims.
“And tall!” you say. “Now, Aradia, dear. You see that it is a long way up, yes?”
“I can.” You notice she does not react when you call her dear. Your nerves are thrumming all through you.
“Would you be my cavalreaper in shining battle gear and carry me up there?” You give her your best juvenile barkbeast eyes.
“Don’t you have some other way of getting up?”
“Of course I do. One does not always have a cute maroonblood to fly her everywhere. But it is easier if you do.”
“I’m sure this is the only reason you befriended me,” she says, teasing.
“Precisely! Seriously, though, if you’re too tired, you don’t-”
Before you can finish your sentence, Aradia swoops forward and picks you up so one arm is under your knees and one under your back.
“I think you are forgetting that I am a tireless heroine,” she reminds you, her words nearly drowned out by the rush of the wind.
“Swoon,” you reply, and put a hand to your forehead to back up your point. You suppose being lifted into the air like this would be scarier if you could actually see how high up you were, and if you weren’t being held carefully by your flushcrush. It ends too soon when she lands in front of the door and carefully sets you down. You grin and thank her.
“No problem. Now, let’s actually go inside before we fry.” You open the door and usher her inside, hoping she won’t judge your decor too harshly. She didn’t care about the scalemates, so you’re confident she won’t be too skeptical.
“Welcome to my murder cave. Please assume the murder submission position,” you say by way of welcome. Aradia giggles.
“Did you dye all this with the blood of your victims?”
“Of course! What do you take me for, an amateur?” You sit down on the couch. “I’m kidding. I’m not quite at subjugglator levels of insanity yet.”
“That’s a relief,” Aradia says, tucking a strand of wild hair behind her ear. Her horns have gotten impressively big in the last few sweeps, and you’re amazed she still squishes her weird explorer hat between them.
“Really, though, I would never hurt you,” you say, and blush at how blatantly pitying you just sounded. You cough and ask, “Tireless enough to watch a movie before we go to sleep?” You’re a smooth operator, Pyrope.
“Depends on which one.”
“How about In Which Troll Indiana Jones-”
“You don’t have to say the rest, that’s perfect. I’m not so hard to figure out if you know me.” Aradia sits down next to you, and you can smell a deep pomegranate tinting her cheeks. “Why is your audiovisual unit so close to the couch?” You note that she changes the subject about as fast as you did.
“It has to be close to me if I really want to smell the details of the show,” you tell her. “It got tiresome trying to guess at the blood colors of the characters based on behavior.” Aradia sits bolt upright and smiles so widely it adds new layers of unsettling.
“You mean to say... they were pigments of your imagination?”
“I hate you in a very non-sexy way!”
“You know you love my puns!”
“Oh yes, your puns arouse me to an embarrassing extent. The rest of you is absolutely repulsive. I dream of you just standing nearby and making puns while I furiously pleasure myself.”
“Ooh Ms. Pyrope ooh,” says Aradia. You’re both cackling at this point.
"Shall I actually put on the movie now?" She nods and puts her head on your shoulder as you fire up the audiovisual unit. You can still feel her shaking with laughter.
As the movie goes on, you gradually become more entangled in each other. You lean back. Her head migrates to your chest, and your arms lock around her torso. Any doubts you'd had about the possible romantic nature of the night evaporate. In other words, she's totally into you. Troll Indiana Jones fights, flirts, and acrobatically pirouettes his way through his problems. You have to admire his perseverance and skill, though you do disapprove of some of his less-than-legal actions. You say so to Aradia.
"Oh, come on! You can hardly argue he isn't serving the Empire. Researching alien species' civilizations is vital to defeating them." Usually, you’d be up for a spirited debate on xenomorality, but today you are a little preoccupied.
"Cranberry, you're making my leg go numb." Aradia looks up at you in mock horror.
"Cranberry? Like the poor Investigator? Should I be worried about you prosecuting me for covering my matesprit's crimes?"
"You don't have a matesprit, do you?"
"I'd like to." Her voice is quieter than the movie, but it's the only thing you can hear.
"Well, is there anyone you like?"
"Yes," she says, sitting up a little so your heads are level. You can feel her breath gentle against your face.
"Who?"
"I'm sure Legislacerator Terezi Pyrope can make a deduction." She’s very warm- even your teal is high enough above her maroon to make a noticeable difference. Time seems to slow down, and you want this moment in your mind forever- the warmth, the closeness, the trust.
You kiss her, and her mouth is wonderfully red.